


End of the world

by Kujaku



Category: Black Sails
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 01:27:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15523038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kujaku/pseuds/Kujaku





	End of the world

From the barred window, he experiences it all. The smell is acrid and catches in their throats, the wood and the oakum burning like most of the town; the screams and the cries are almost as unbearable as the taste of blood and ash in his mouth, but he endures it. Like he endures the tiny cell in which they both wait since they surrendered to the English.   
Well…“surrendered” is a bit of a euphemism, as it implies at least a modicum of choice and he distincly remembers having had no choice whatsoever.

  
Jack feels rather than hears her coming close to him, holds out his hand and she hangs on to it, like he remembers her having done so when he took her away from her husband, when he tried to offer her a better life…

\- Jesus, it’s like the end of the fucking world out there.

Anne’s voice drags him out of his spiraling thoughts and he has a bitter smile as he squeezes her hand in answer.  
\- The end of the world, hardly. The end of Nassau, maybe. The end of piracy in the Bahamas, probably. The end of us? Certainly. But the world…the world will keep on going without us. Or will try to, at least.

He can’t help but try to keep his panic at bay with dry humour - gallows humour, as they say. Anne knows exactly how his mind works by now. But his voice cracks on the very last word, and she doesn’t move from his side.   
She knows what he’s seeing, what’s coursing through his mind right now. The ships being sunk by the redcoats. The Colonial Dawn burning a bright red, Jack’s flag torn to shreds. The pirates of all crews running, screaming, bleeding, dying.   
And Charles Vane’s corpse hanging at the entrance of Nassau’s port, a warning to all.

  
That’s the last straw, she knows. That’s the last blade thrust into Jack’s heart. She feels it too, feels the blinding anger and fear that comes from it, and just like Jack, she has no place to pour it into, no-one to throw it against.   
And then he speaks again.  
\- I’m sorry.  
\- It ain’t your fault, Jack.  
\- You came back to help me. If you hadn’t, you might have made it onto one of their ships, changed your name and disappeared. You could have followed Max to Philadelphia or to Savannah or to Boston, or wherever she’s managed to go.   
\- Told you already, din’t I? You and me, we’re partners until they put us in the ground.   
\- Well, that was most probably the stupidest idea you’ve ever had, and God knows you’ve had a good number of them. Between you and Charles, I don’t know who is worse.  
\- Yeah, well you’re surrounded by fucking idiots, ain’t you?

Their voices are calm and their hands still entwined. And Anne moves in the half-darkness and pushes against him; their mouths are warm and neither knows where the taste of blood and sea-salt comes from, but they don’t want to stop. They haven’t kissed in a long time, not like this, not since Max, but Anne doesn’t care about that anymore and Jack will never say no, he’s loved her too much and too deeply for that.

They hear footsteps in the corridor and they know it’s time. The gallows are baying for blood and they will be fed. Jack straightens up, Anne shakes her hair out of her eyes. They might be about to die, but they’ll show the redcoats how pirates go.

  
Charles will be proud of them.

  
\- See you on the other side?  
\- Always.


End file.
